


Can't Keep a Good Man Down

by privatemumbles



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Body Horror, Cannibalism, Gen, Mobsterswitch, and also write whatever the hell i want as his only fan, its my nintendo and i get to choose which minor character i enjoy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-11 03:31:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18421932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/privatemumbles/pseuds/privatemumbles
Summary: A string of missing informants and murders leads the newly formed Twilight Scoundrels to believe there may be one more Shadow Mage in the city than they thought. Now, what to do with them once found...Angry Delinquent Origin Fic (Kind Of)





	Can't Keep a Good Man Down

"You can't be serious, right? Another one?!"

Peccant Scofflaw looked over the rusting blood spatter, shred of clothing and a proper hat being presumably all that was left of another prospective informant. This had been the third goddamn sod he had found as nothing but a fine red mist in a month, and even then he knew this wasn't isolated. Reports were coming in from all over Metro City about the remains missing from numerous death sites. The Fuzz was scrambling everywhere looking for the perp, so was every half decent detective agency.

Really, Scofflaw was half ready to go after whoever was messing with the town he was making his. Sure they left a blood trail the size of several men, but that didn't mean anything to him. He growled in frustration, turning his heel on the sight and pointing to Doxy. "We need another clean up, and you" he said pointing to Bawd "Need to get us another informant. At this point we're going to start attracting attention from the Fuzz- and I feel like that Crowbar they've got as Deputy isn't going to be playing in our favor like that idiot they've got at the helm."

Bawd sighed, and went about already making calls while Doxy grumbled and got the cleaning crew you four had gotten into your favor on the line. “You can't make it,” she shouts furiously into her phone, “Whadya mean you can't make it?!” The cleanup boys say they've already got their hands full, the nights still young and whoever's been busying themselves with the other saps in the city unlucky enough to get caught in their way.

Scofflaws about to snap at Doxy to snap at them that his gang should be coming first, when Bawds head snaps up and she looks your way with a spark of inspiration. "Wwhat if, whoever's doing this is still out there? If there's been so many deaths tonight, maybe they're still at it." Everyone held still once she stopped talking, and then looked just a little closer at the blood stain. Damnit, the one night Scofflaw gave Innovator a night off after he kept burning himself up on Shadow Magic. Never mind that though. Scofflaw could trace down this hunter nearly as well.  
Not too soon after, the three Scoundrels were following a strangely familiar feeling trail of blood, etched into footprints leading far off through Metro City. Of course the killer wasn't actually leaving the prints, those had stopped a while back. Scoffs eyes glowed unearthly purple as he followed it with Bawd and Doxy not too far behind. He laughs while huffing lightly. "We're not bad detectives huh? In another life we'd be great!" Doxy laughs, and says Scofflaw and Inny couldn't investigate their way out of a tin can.

They hear him long before they see him. There's a dying strangled yelp of pain, curdling with blood flooding someones windpipe. The thick snapping of bone, flesh ripping. This was it! They'd finally find the perp, and Scofflaw was ready to find the mind behind some of the most grisly murders his city had seen in years. Three of the most dangerous people in the city cornered the Delinquent, and watched unholy eyes just like theirs stare up and through them. An unhinged jaw wide enough to shove every bone and fleshy remnant of the man he'd killed was soaked through with blood, and Scofflaw felt a twinge of fear exist in his lost soul before snuffing it out like a fire. This was bigger than paltry fear, this was someone... Different.

The Delinquent kept watching them as he continued to eat the corpse, and Scofflaw could hear the ladies behind him cringe in disgust and fear at the sight, Bawd ready to hurl into the street corners. Scofflaw didn't look away as Delinquent came to a halt, breathing heavily before collapsing abruptly. His bones audibly crunched together, forcing his jaw to repair itself and Scofflaw winced as the short man’s skin resealed. What kind of a pact did this guy have? What kind of hellish one sided deal did he stick his gambit into?

"Now I know what you're thinking Dox-"  
"You can't seriously be considering taking him back with us, Percy."

"But just look at him! Without the limb rending body and the god awful mouth thing, I think he's like a foot shorter than we are! Like a rabid adorable dog you just can’t put down."

"That's not the point, dumbass! Point is, this guys got no control over his pact! He'll either attack us in our own hideout, or keep being an issue."  
Bawd gulped nervously, but obviously agreed with Doxy. She edged closer behind the smaller womans frame, keeping her eyes on the unmoving mans form. "Whatever you think you ccan do for that man? It's sort of crazy Scoff."

He waved the two of them off, and crouched down next to the Delinquent. Scofflaw didn't recognize his weathered face, but he swore he saw it before somewhere recently. This man couldn’t be anyone too special, but he had to be desperate to do make a deal like this. No one who made a deal wasn’t. He turned the man over, looking for an ID in his pockets and- aha! There we go.

Scoff tossed back a soggy wallet to the apprehensive ladies. Doxy sneered at the article, holding it as gingerly as possible between two fingers. "So either of you recognize a Mister Angus Dorantes? Because I sure don’t!" Scofflaw asked with a prize winning smile while hoisting the murderous man up onto his feet.

Pernicious Innovator stared at the short man across the table from him. He was sitting up, but he kept staring at his hands and the cup of tea Scofflaw had shoved into them. For all the frustrations and pains Innovator had been through in his journey of being a shadow mage, he wasn't sure if he'd ever seen a man who looked... So tired. Like he was ready to pass on to whatever came next after he closed his eyes.. He opened his mouth with a stutter dying in his throat, and then closed it, and then tried again. By the sixth time, the Delinquent sharply looked up at Innovator, and breathed out heavily. "Just spit it out already. "

"Oh no it's just- I- well-"

He gave Innovator a pointed look. "If you're going to call me a monst-"  
"What does human taste like?" Delinquent stops on the spot, gawking at Innovator. Not a single bit of the pale man's face contorts to reflect the subject of the statement . "It uh, well."

"Tastes like," he struggled to speak concisely "Nothing."

Innovator raised an eyebrow. "Nothing?"

"I mean I got like, the taste in my mouth after but I don't remember really, tasting it." It, instead of him or her or they, not a person but an it. That's all those had been to him. Innovator nods, looking dissatisfied with the answer given to him.

"I've seen your face before. In the newspapers." Delinquent stared at him suddenly. "You're the one who was attacked by Kingpins thugs, weren't you? And a few other people. That’s what the report said."

He flexed his hands, cracking his knuckles, trying to keep himself in his seat. The Innovator either didn’t care, or he didn’t notice. “I ddon’t mean to pry but... were they ppeople you knew-?”

The Delinquent nearly jumps on Innovator at the mention as Scofflaw waltzes into the room, swaying side to side with a spring in his step and a grin on his face. "Good news boys! Fuzz is finally off the trail! Got that sucker Utilitary Manager pinned for the job. You shoulda seen the way Doxy sobbed to the police, the dame can almost act better than I can! Almost. Keyword there is almost."

"...they're not looking for me anymore?" Scofflaw grinned that far too charismatic smile of his, and the answer was clear. "If you’re that distrusting of me, check the news tonight. It’ll be all over the channels that the big bad blowhard on the streets finally been taken in. It took some doing to be sure, but there's nothing ol' Scofflaw and the Scoundrels can't do, Delinquent."

Angry Delinquent looked shocked that he'd gone to all this trouble for him- the man and his shadowy troupe had seen what he did so- 

"Why?"

"Excellent question Inny! After all, we don't do things free of charge here. So, tell me Delinquent."

Scofflaw leans over the shorter man, eyes gleaming. "What are you going to do to make it up to us?"

Bawd nudged the pile of melted wax with her foot, it one of the only things left of this initial ritual the Delinquent must've performed. She snapped pictures of the whole set up he had going on, his circle, the books and papers he'd researched, what god he had so foolishly made a pact with. If Scofflaw was serious about this whole, inducting the man into the Scoundrels deal? Then they better be prepared for everything. Blackmail, being helpful by explaining his plight and their powers, everything. She questioned his neighbors, she questioned his contacts she questioned everyone. Everyone already knew what was wrong with him, or at least what Bawd could tell drove him to it. The Delinquent had gone into grieving, he was all alone, poor sad little man everyone said. He was in the mob, he owed them money, they were tired of them, they owed him money, came the rumors. Was so easy to find an outspoken man like that, he has hid his family, they were about to leave.

And everyone knew. Wisteria and Bruce Dorantes were shot dead on the spot, and the Delinquent had survived. With all the pictures of his wife and child, it was easy to see what he had wanted from the terrors, what he bled out for and evidently not received in return for his sacrifice.

Bawd almost felt bad for him, and what Scofflaw was going to do to him.

But that's business.

It wasn't so bad nowadays, at least compared to before when he had been in a spiral of unknowing and confusion. Not walking up in a pool of someone elses blood with only a few shreds of memory wasn't his ideal scenario. They'd gotten his measurements, eyed the terrors mark on his stomach, fitted him with a new suit (same hat. Anyone with a shred of humanity in their hearts wouldn't make a man change his hat.)

It was like he felt normal again, sort of. He learned all their names, all their titles, they'd already found his. Doxy had pressed a wad of cash in his hand with a wink and told him to get something nice for himself, he'd went home after a week to a clean apartment where he could barely tell that he’d committed some very grievous deeds apart from the heavy air that pressured down his shoulders, Innovator had begun to shakily explain what was happening to his own body as his skin greyed and purple flames would shoot from his palms when he snarled and seared his own skin (And then Bawd would re-explain it when he couldn’t grasp the terms), And Scofflaw?

Scofflaw was the one that put it together, organizing the Scoundrels into less of a task group and more of an organism under his control. He had pulled Delinquent out of his darkness, and into his own. He had woken up there, and Scofflaw was there to greet him with a smile fake as a snake and a voice sweet as sugar. “Someone's awake finally-” he’d said, reintroducing Delinquent into a world of crime he thought he had known, but really only dipped his toes into. 

Scofflaw was a mover of men, a changer of men, a savior and a killer of men. Delinquent had known folks just like Scofflaw in his life, but none of them had the drive this man had. Scofflaw was going somewhere, and when he had seen what Delinquent could do to a man in even a short brawl, after the police had raided their base two days after the Delinquent had begun to settle in with them and several did not leave. This was going somewhere special, and Delinquent was ready to take Scofflaws stained hands in his own and follow him. He owed him everything. He owed him his being and his fresh start. The Delinquent wasn’t all together a largely imaginative man but Scofflaw knew a loyal one when he saw him.

"What are you going to do to make it up to us?"

"Anything you want me to boss."

**Author's Note:**

> It took me several months to get off of my ass and edit this. Big thanks to my friends for pre reading and giving me advice on where to work things out!


End file.
